Please do tell me about the spider cowboy plot I do want to know about the cowboy plot
Not spiders, but different creepy-crawlers involved. Let me explain.
I've been having really bad writer's block (combination of stress, lack of ADHD meds and a dash of laser-targeted imposter syndrome) but every once and a while I get a fun idea in my head that just gums up the works for a bit. About a week ago, I was thinking of a bunch of subjects I personally am interested in, specifically:
Superman comics, specifically retellings of his origin story
The biblical Moses and the historical desire for a savior for humanity
Mormon pioneer history, particularly events such as the Mountain Meadows Massacre where Mormon pioneers murdered around 120 peaceful settlers, sparing only 17 children who were younger than 7
and I realized that there's a few connections I could make between those subjects. With his debut in the Great Depression as a union-supporting vigilante, Superman could be interpreted as an American savior character, created to express a desire for someone that could free the common folk from the bondages of capitalism and political corruption; heck, he's commonly interpreted as a Moses figure by some scholars. In turn, I thought of the children spared in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, who were adopted by Mormon settlers with the explicit intent to raise them in the faith of their captors. I realized that I could tie these threads together to make a cohesive story, and added in three other concepts that I appreciate:
Spaghetti western revenge stories
Shōnen action setups
Hellboy comics
and with that in mind, I've developed a story concept I'm currently calling Locust Jones.
I'm still putting the story together, but my current idea is that an alien child is raised in the American West and taught that his adoptive parents found him in a downed alien spacecraft and vowed to raise him in their community. He is given a human name (haven't decided, but possibly Brigham: it's ultimately unimportant though), but is commonly just called "Locust" by the townsfolk due to his bug-like appearance.
After dealing with years of prejudice towards his visible appearance (his family regularly bound his extra limbs together to make him more humanoid, and his insectoid wings were amputated as a child), Jones learns that he wasn't found, but taken, as a militia group led by his adoptive father raided a peaceful camp of aliens they found camping on the plains, killed most of them and stole their technology. Nearly two decades later, the "Wild West" has been tamed by the former militiamen, now armed with fantastic technologies and calling themselves the "Celestial Saints" (cool name pending). Jones flees his hometown with the help of his kindly adoptive brother, who is killed in the escape. Vowing revenge, Jones takes his brother's hat and gun and sets out to kill the men responsible for his stolen life.
Structure-wise, I imagine it to be a story divided up into "arcs" about Jones targeting different Saints that have taken up new positions in the drastically-changed American West. Each arc would involve Jones fighting a Saint who is armed with some piece of technology adapted from the alien settlers' downed spacecraft -- concepts I've developed include a revolver stuffed with alien batteries that now fires lasers, or a poncho fashioned out of an indestructible cloth found on the spacecraft. As Jones kills his way through the Saints, he claims each stolen item, collecting his literal heritage with every step.
There's also obvious other elements I could include: an encounter with another of his species would let Jones realize he doesn't know his native language, encountering the various Indigenous peoples of the West and grappling with how they've been handling the incursions of European and interstellar pioneers (ranging from necessary collaboration to outright resistance, much like real history), and the obvious realization that revenge hardly ever ends with satisfaction.
Anyway thanks for sending the ask I've appreciated the opportunity to vent about my story
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The Mormon Cricket & Deserette in... Secret Identity
It was a quiet night in Salt Lake City, and Deserette was bored. As one of a myriad of superheroes residing in the city, she’d grown accustomed to two things: being able to fight evildoers when they appear, and to be able to chat with her partner when the evildoers decided to take a break. Tonight, she was doing neither of these things; no evil seemed to be running amuck throughout the city, and her partner, the hero known as the Mormon Cricket, was nowhere to be seen.
A few hours after he was supposed to arrive, Deserette found herself growing concerned. It wasn’t like him to be late. She hoped nothing bad had happened to him -- for all she knew, he could have been killed. Or worse! He could be grounded.
Deserette suddenly stopped her worrying. Something had changed, and she liked it. “I know you’re there,” she announced to the night sky with a smile.
A lean and green figure landed dramatically on the rooftop, his impact barely audible. His gloved hands were clenched into fists, and his antennae blew in the wind. This was the Mormon Cricket, defender of Salt Lake City.
“You’re late,” said Deserette.
The Mormon Cricket yanked off his cowl by the antennae, revealing a deeply nervous teenage face. “Sorry, Alasini, I’ve had a busy night. You won’t believe--”
Alasini held up a finger. “Wait a second, Caleb. Is this going to be another long-winded story about your family?”
“Probably.”
She grinned. “Awesome. Lemme get ready.” She shrugged her insect-winged backpack off of her shoulders and onto the rooftop. “Alright ready. Spill the tea, boy.”
Caleb sighed. “Alright, so I decided to come out to my parents tonight.”
“Really? That’s great! Glad you’re finally telling them you’re asexual! That’s a good first step.” Alasini laughed. “Hopefully at some point people will get the hint and they’ll quit thinking we’re dating.”
“People think we’re dating?”
“Too many people, honestly. It’s making it really hard for me to get dates for myself, y’know.” Alasini shrugged. “Whatever. At least you told them.”
Caleb sighed again, deeper this time. “That’s… not entirely how things went. Let me explain.”
###
Three hours prior, Caleb Andersen was sitting in his room at home, desperately psyching himself up. He knew he shouldn’t be worried, and that his parents loved him -- and yet, he worried. His parents were really religious, more than him. He wasn’t sure about how his church felt about asexuality -- what would he do if his parents sided with them over him?
As Caleb fretted, his eyes drifted over to another source of worry -- the box under his bed that contained the suit he wore as the Mormon Cricket. He really didn’t need his parents figuring that out, though he did sometimes think that it’d be a relief if they did know.
There was a knock on the door. It was his mom. “Caleb? It’s dinner time. Come eat.”
“Alright!” Caleb pushed the box deeper under his bed and steeled his nerves. Today was the day. After dinner, he’d tell his parents the truth.
###
After dinner, the family sat around the table shooting the breeze. His dad was excitedly talking about Star Trek with his mom, who very clearly was uninterested but trying to seem enthralled.
Caleb interrupted his dad before he could get into a rant about how the new Klingon design was worse than the classic one. “Hey, can I share something?”
His dad blinked twice. “Sure, Caleb.”
Caleb took a deep breath. It was now or never. “Mom, Dad? I have something I need to tell you. I’m--”
Mom hushed him. “Oh, honey, it’s alright. We already know.”
“You already know?”
Mom smiled. “We’ve known for a while now.”
Dad put a hand on Caleb’s shoulder. “We’re so proud of you already, and thankful that you felt comfortable enough to confide in us.”
Caleb nodded awkwardly. “Uh… cool beans.” He was a little confused, mostly about what they’d already found out. What had they learned? If they’d figured out he was ace, great, cool, he could work with that… but if they’d discovered he was the Cricket, that could be more of an issue, even if they weren’t mad.
Caleb decided to probe the situation with all the subtlety he could muster. “So… you two are cool with it?”
“Cool with it? We couldn’t be happier!” His dad laughed. “It’s such a relief for us to know.”
“Yeah,” added his mom, “you wouldn’t believe the stresses a parent goes through as they worry about what their child’s been hiding from them.” She shrugged. “Sure, it was a little jarring to learn at first, but we decided we’d make it work and let you tell us once you felt comfortable.”
Great. At least his parents were supportive (of something) but this line of questioning was going nowhere. Caleb decided to try a different approach. “And how do you feel about the… social aspect of this?” Caleb figured this was a good question: regardless of asexuality or superheroism, this would help to shed some light on what they were thinking.
“Oh, it’s great! It’ll definitely open new doors and opportunities for you.” His dad fidgeted with his napkin. “And of course, you’re always going to be able to change your mind if you really want to--”
“Which you don’t have to, of course,” his mom hurriedly added. “At least, we won’t expect you to. This is your decision and whatever you end up doing with it, we’ll stand by you.”
“Awesome, thanks.” This is not awesome, thought Caleb. How the heck am I going to get a straight (ha, straight) answer out of them without outing myself as the wrong one?
His dad patted himself on the belly. “Well,” he said, “Dinner was good. Who wants to go get ice cream for dessert?”
That was the cue that this conversation was over, and Caleb resigned himself to not being able to get an answer from his parents tonight. Awkwardly, somewhat defeated, Caleb sighed. “Sure, Dad.”
###
“So, what’d you do next?” Alasini was sitting cross-legged on the edge of the building, rocking back and forth with anticipation from the story.
“I got a grasshopper shake and told my folks I was calling it a night-”
“No, you dork! What about your parents?”
Caleb was pacing back and forth across the rooftop. “I don’t know! I know they’ve figured out something, but I have no clue what they figured out! And I can’t just ask because I don’t want to give away that I’m a superhero!”
“Well,” suggested Alasini, “it’s gotta be that you’re the Mormon Cricket, right? Like, that’d make the most sense - you’re not exactly good at hiding that.”
“I feel like they’d be more upset about that than the whole asexual thing.” Caleb sat down and absently ran his fingers through his hair. “Ugh, this whole situation just sucks.”
“It could be worse. I mean, at least they’re supportive.”
“You’re right. Whatever happens, at least I’ve got my parents behind me.” Caleb stood up. “And who knows? Maybe one day I’ll be able to figure out what they meant. Maybe I’ll be able to tell them everything. We’ll see.”
A scream rang out in the night. Caleb and Alasini looked at each other. Alasini grinned. “We can worry about this later. Right now it sounds like our city needs us.” She slung her wingpack onto her back. “You ready, Cricket?”
Caleb grinned and tugged his cowl back on, his suit’s antennae springing up like cattails. “Always, Deserette.”
And with that, our two heroes dove into the night, prepared to fight off villainy across the city.
###
Back at the Andersen home, Caleb’s dad was washing the dishes. Mom slipped in and wrapped him in a hug from behind.
“Y’know, I’m really proud of how you handled that tonight,” she whispered.
“What? The dishes or Caleb?”
“Both.”
Dad continued mopping crusted food off of a plate. “Of course. I’m proud of my cleaning skills, and I’m proud of my son.”
“Yeah,” said Mom, “It’s just so exciting that he’s finally dating that Alasini girl.”
“Well,” pointed out Dad, “we aren’t sure of that.”
Mom scoffed. “They hang out all the time. What else could they be doing?”
Through the window, unseen by either parent, two silhouettes bounded across the Salt Lake cityscape, their leaps joyful and free.
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